SME

The purpose of this project was to gain insights to influence future development of the WESTEC event strategy. WESTEC is one of many industry events produced by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. In recent years, SME leadership noticed a substantial decline in the attendance of this particular event. They asked us to look into why this is happening. So it was off to Los Angeles, where the event is held, to conduct a thorough contextual inquiry. We focused our research methods toward gathering insights from multiple stakeholders through both covert and overt techniques. We observed and interviewed exhibitors and attendees. With this raw qualitative data in hand, we organized key insights, observational patterns and recommendations – based on how people perceive the current state of the event. The results of this effort were compiled into visual assets and communicated back to SME leadership.